Demographics, overall numbers move in right direction

The federal government reported slightly better numbers in
January for Obamacare’s once-troubled online marketplaces, but Ohio and
the nation still fall far short of key demographic goals.
For the first time since HealthCare.gov’s glitch-ridden rollout, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) numbers show the amount of new enrollees actually beat projections.
About 1,146,100 signed up for Obamacare in January, slightly higher
than the 1,059,900 previously projected by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services.
More importantly, a small boost in young adults means 25
percent of 3.3 million enrollees across the nation and 21 percent of
60,000 Ohio enrollees were aged 18 to 34. That’s up 1 percentage point
for the nation and 2 percentage points for Ohio.
The White House previously said 39 percent of enrollees
need to be young adults, who tend to be healthier, to avoid driving up
health care costs by filling the insurance pool with older, sicker
people who typically use more resources.
HHS’ numbers only reflect people who signed up for a
health plan, not people who paid for their first premium, which is
widely considered the final crucial step to getting covered.
Nearly nine in 10 single, uninsured young adults could
qualify for financial assistance through the health care law or free
Medicaid, which expanded eligibility in Ohio through Obamacare, according to HHS.

As project moves forward, National Church Residences initiates community engagement

The group heading a supportive housing project in Avondale on Friday announced it will initiate monthly "good neighbor" meetings to address local concerns, with the first meeting scheduled at the Church of the Living God, located at 434 Forest Ave., on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. National Church Residences (NCR) says the meetings will help "set the highest property, safety, and conduct standards" for the 90-unit Commons at Alaska facility, which will aid chronically homeless,
disabled and low-income individuals."National Church Residences is excited to become part of the revitalization of the Avondale neighborhood," said Amy Rosenthal, senior project leader for NCR, in a statement. "Through this series of meetings, we look forward to sitting down with our neighbors and answering their questions about our organization and in particular the planned apartment community."The meetings should help address some Avondale residents' concerns about the project. Although several opponents of the facility say their opposition is not rooted in a not-in-my-backyard attitude that follows so many supportive housing projects, critics consistently argue the housing facility will attract a dangerous crowd that would worsen public safety in the neighborhood.Critics' claims actually contradict some of the research done on supportive housing. A study conducted for similar
facilities in Columbus found areas with permanent supportive housing
facilities saw the same or lower crime increases as demographically
comparable areas.Still, the controversy eventually reached City Council after Councilman Christopher Smitherman proposed pulling the city's support for state tax credits funding the project. In January, council rejected Smitherman's proposal and voted to continue supporting the project. (It's questionable whether a different council decision would have made any difference, since the group already received state tax credits last June.)By several economic indicators, Cincinnati's worst-off certainly need more support. About 34 percent of the overall population and more than half of the city's children live in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.Correction: This story originally claimed the facility would house 99 apartments, based on a previous estimate. The amount of apartments was actually reduced to 90 through negotiations. We apologize for the error.

A coalition between Equality Ohio and other major LGBT groups on Friday
officially declared it will not support a 2014 ballot initiative that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Instead, the coalition plans to continue education efforts and place the issue on the ballot in 2016. But FreedomOhio, the LGBT group currently
leading the 2014 ballot initiative, plans to put the issue on the ballot this year
with or without support from other groups. CityBeat covered the issue and conflict in further detail here.The group heading Commons at Alaska, a permanent supportive housing project
in Avondale, plans to hold monthly “good neighbor” meetings to address
local concerns about the facility. The first
meeting is scheduled at the Church of the Living God, located at 434 Forest
Avenue, on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. Some Avondale residents have lobbied
against the facility out of fears it would weaken public safety, but a
study of similar facilities in Columbus found areas with permanent
supportive housing facilities saw the same or lower crime increases as
demographically comparable areas. In January, a supermajority of City
Council rejected Councilman Christopher Smitherman’s proposal to rescind
the city’s support for the Avondale project.Gov. John Kasich’s income tax proposal would
disproportionately benefit Ohio’s wealthiest, an analysis from Policy
Matters Ohio and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found.
Specifically, the proposal would on average cut taxes by $2 for the
bottom 20 percent of Ohioans, $48 for the middle 20 percent and $2,515
for the top 1 percent. The proposal is typical for Ohio Republicans:
They regularly push to lower taxes for the wealthy, even though
research, including from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service,
finds tax cuts for the wealthy aren’t correlated with higher economic
growth.
Local policy explainers from the past week:• What Is Mayor John Cranley’s Parking Plan?• What Is Responsible Bidder?
Mayor John Cranley says he wants Catholic Health Partners to locate its planned headquarters in Bond Hill.A new Ohio law uncovered more than 250 high-volume dog
breeders that previously went unregulated in the state. The new
regulations aim to weed out bad, unsafe environments for high-volume dog
breeding, but some animal advocates argue the rules don’t go far
enough. CityBeat covered the new law in further detail here.Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald could
face a longshot primary challenger in May. But the challenger, Larry Ealy of the Dayton
area, still needs his signatures confirmed by the secretary of state to
officially get on the ballot.Former Gov. Ted Strickland could run against U.S. Sen. Rob Portman in 2016, according to The Plain Dealer. Strickland cautioned it’s not an official announcement, but it’s not something he’s ruled out, either.A bill that would make the Ohio Board of Education an
all-elected body appears to have died in the Ohio legislature.
Currently, the governor appoints nearly half of the board’s members. Some legislators argue the governor’s appointments make the body too political.Science says white noise can help some people sleep.Follow CityBeat on Twitter:• Main: @CityBeatCincy • News: @CityBeat_News • Music: @CityBeatMusic • German Lopez: @germanrlopezGot any news tips? Email them to glopez@citybeat.com.

City’s poor struggle to break free, CPS gains nationwide praise, city and county head to court

With Cincinnati’s child poverty and economic mobility
rates among the worst in the country, it’s clear the city’s poor can get
stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty. Although the impoverished trend
afflicts more than half of the city’s children, every level of
government has in some way cut services to the poor. The end result:
Many Cincinnati neighborhoods show little signs of progress as poor health and economic
indicators pile up. Read CityBeat’s in-depth story here.Following the adoption of community learning centers,
Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) continue receiving praise for establishing a workable model for educating low-income
populations. Locally, independent data shows the model has pushed CPS
further than the traditional approach to education, even though the
school district continues struggling with impoverished demographics. A few
hundred miles away, newly elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
says he will implement the Cincinnati model in the biggest city in the nation.Hamilton County and Cincinnati are heading to court to
decide who can set policy for Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD)
projects. The conflict came to a head after Hamilton County
commissioners deliberately halted federally mandated MSD projects to
protest the city’s job training rules for contractors. The
Republican-controlled county argues the rules favor unions, burden
businesses and breach state law, but the city says the rules are
perfectly legal and provide work opportunities for city workers.Commentary: “Legalizing Marijuana Is Serious Business.”With HealthCare.gov mostly fixed, CityBeat
interviewed Trey Daly, who is leading the Ohio branch of an organization
reaching out to the uninsured to get them enrolled in Obamacare.Explainer: Everything you need to know about Mayor John Cranley’s parking plan.University of Kentucky researchers found tolls would, at worst, reduce traffic on a new Brent Spence Bridge by 2 percent.After raising concerns over teacher pay and missed
classroom time, Republicans in the Ohio House delayed a vote on a bill
that would add school calamity days. Gov. John Kasich called for the
bill to help schools that have already exhausted their snow days during
this winter’s harsh weather.Ohio regulators fined Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino
$75,000 for providing credit to early patrons without running the proper
background checks.Cincinnati-based Kroger faces a lawsuit claiming stores
deceived customers by labeling chickens as humanely raised when the
animals were brought up under standard commercial environments.Cincinnati-based crowdfunding startup SoMoLend settled
with Ohio over allegations that it sold unregistered securities and its
founder misled investors. Candace Klein, the founder, resigned as CEO of
the company in August.Comcast intends to acquire Time Warner Cable, one of two major Internet providers in Cincinnati, through a $45 billion deal.U.S. physicists pushed fusion energy closer to reality with a breakthrough formally announced yesterday.Follow CityBeat on Twitter:• Main: @CityBeatCincy • News: @CityBeat_News • Music: @CityBeatMusic • German Lopez: @germanrlopezGot any news tips? Email them to glopez@citybeat.com.

Lower-income fourth-graders much more likely to fail standards

Ohio’s lower-income fourth-graders were much more likely
than higher-income fourth-graders to fall below reading proficiency
standards in 2013, according to a report released Tuesday by the Annie
E. Casey Foundation.Four in five lower-income fourth-graders were declared below
reading proficiency standards in 2013, the report found. Only 48
percent of higher-income fourth-graders fell below proficiency.Ohio mostly matched the national trend: About 80 percent
of lower-income fourth-graders and 49 percent of higher-income
fourth-graders across the country read below proficient levels last
year.The report also found Ohio’s overall reading proficiency
improved by 5 percent between 2003 and 2013, a notch below the nation’s 6
percent improvement.The report comes as state officials implement
the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, which requires most Ohio
third-graders to test as “proficient” before they advance to the fourth
grade. Preliminary results showed one-third of Ohio students failing to
pass the test, putting them at risk of retention.“Ohio needs to do whatever it takes to get all children —
especially low income and children of color — on track with this
milestone,” said Renuka Mayadev, executive director of the Children’s
Defense Fund of Ohio, in a statement. “The long-term prosperity of Ohio
and our nation depends upon improving crucial educational outcomes such
as reading proficiency.”
The report also speaks to some of the challenges Ohio and
other states face in evaluating schools, teachers and students as the
nation struggles with high levels of income inequality.
A Jan. 22 report from Policy Matters Ohio found
high-scoring urban schools tend to have lower poverty rates than
low-performing urban schools. In Cincinnati, nine of the 19 top-rated
urban schools served a lower percentage of economically disadvantaged
students than the district as a whole.Another study from three school advocacy groups found
Ohio’s school funding formula fails to fully account for how many
resources school districts, including Cincinnati Public Schools, need to
use to serve impoverished populations instead of basic education
services. In effect, the discrepancy means Ohio’s impoverished school
districts get even less funding per student for basic education than previously assumed.

Three Ohio cities make Children Defense Fund’s top five

Cincinnati ranked No. 2 for highest child poverty out of 76 major U.S.
cities in 2012, the Children’s
Defense Fund (CDF) of Ohio said Friday.
The numbers provide a grim reminder that more than half of
Cincinnati’s children lived in poverty in 2012, even as the city’s urban core began a nationally recognized revitalization period.
With 53.1 percent of children in poverty, Cincinnati
performed better in CDF’s ranking than Detroit (59.4 percent) but worse
than Cleveland (52.6 percent), Miami (48 percent) and Toledo (46
percent), which rounded out the top five.
The data, adopted from the U.S. Census Bureau, also shows
Ohio’s child poverty rate of 23.6 percent exceeded the national rate of
22.6 percent in 2012, despite slight gains over the previous year.
“When three of the top five American cities with the
highest rates of child poverty are in Ohio, it is clear that children
are not a priority here,” said Renuka Mayadev, executive director of CDF
of Ohio. “Significant numbers of our children do not meet state
academic standards because their basic needs are not being met.”
With the contentious streetcar debate over for now, some local leaders are already turning their attention to Cincinnati’s disturbing levels of poverty.
Mayor John Cranley on Thursday told reporters that he intends to unveil an anti-poverty initiative next year. A majority of council members also told CityBeat
that they will increase human services funding, which goes to agencies
that address issues like poverty and homelessness, even as they work to
structurally balance the city’s operating budget.
Outside City Hall, the Strive Partnership and other education-focused organizations are working to guarantee a quality preschool education
to all of Cincinnati’s 3- and 4-year-olds. The issue, which will most
likely involve a tax hike of some kind, could appear on the 2014 ballot.

Report finds state lacks leadership opportunities for women

In comparison to men, Ohio women have lower incomes, hold fewer
leadership roles and disproportionately suffer from the state’s high
infant mortality rate. The issues placed Ohio at No. 30 out of 50 states
for women’s issues in a Sept. 25 report from the Center for American
Progress (CAP) titled, “The State of Women in America.”
Out of three major categories, Ohio performed worst on leadership roles available to
women, ranking No. 37 in the category with a “D”
grade. CAP found only 16.7 percent of Ohio’s state-elected executive
offices and 37.2 percent of managerial positions are held by women, even
though women make up 52 percent of the state’s population.
The state performed slightly better in health outcomes for
women and obtained a “C-” in the category. The report particularly
criticized Ohio for its infant mortality rate of 7.7 deaths for every
1,000 infants — the fourth highest in the nation — and regulations and defunding measures in the recently passed state budget that make reproductive health services less accessible to women.
On economic issues, Ohio was relatively on par with the
U.S. median and ranked No. 27 with a “C” grade. For every $1 a man
makes, an Ohio woman makes 77 cents, which matches the national average.
But the results are even worse for minorities: Black women make 66 cents
for each dollar a man makes and Hispanic women make 64 cents.
Still, with 17.7 percent of Ohio women living in poverty,
the state has the No. 19 highest poverty rate for women in the country.
The statistics were again worse for minorities: About 36.4 percent of
black women and 32.6 percent of Hispanic women in Ohio live in poverty.
The CAP report analyzed 36 indicators for women in the
categories of economic security, leadership and health. It then graded
the states and ranked them based on the grades.
Vermont topped the rankings with an “A,” and Oklahoma was at the very bottom with an “F.”
CAP, which is an admittedly left-leaning organization, is
touting the report to support progressive policies that could help lift
women out of such disparities, including the federally funded Medicaid
expansion and an increase to minimum wages.
“While women have come a long way over the past few
decades, much remains to be done to ensure that all women can have a
fair shot at success,” said Anna Chu, one of the report’s authors,
in a statement. “Today’s report shows that in many states, it is still
difficult for women and their families to get ahead, instead of just
getting by.”